British business confidence hit highs not seen since April 2017 on hopes the economy is recovering strongly to pre-pandemic levels, according to a survey.

Employers in England’s North West and East registered the biggest jump in confidence, the latest Lloyds Bank Business Barometer found.

There was caution among companies about inflation and staff shortages.

But firms in manufacturing, services and construction all posted greater optimism that recovery would continue.

The monthly survey of 1,200 firms, conducted between 2 and 16 August, also saw business confidence in Northern Ireland turn positive after a negative response in July’s poll.

The barometer found that overall business confidence among UK firms rose by six points to +36% in August, driven by improvements in companies’ trading prospects and expectations of stronger growth in the year ahead.

Said Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Business confidence reaching its highest level in over four years tells a positive story about the country’s economic recovery.

“This confidence is driven by the continued success of the vaccine rollout, the removal of lockdown restrictions and adjustments to self-isolation rules.

“Staff shortages remain a challenge, but as the economy moves back towards pre-pandemic levels we can be optimistic that the momentum for business confidence and economic optimism can be sustained in the months ahead.”

Regional breakdown
Confidence increased in nine out of the 12 UK regions and nations in August with particularly strong rises in the North West, up 26 points to 64% and the East of England, showing a rise of 14 points to 39%.

Smaller rises were seen in the North East, up 6 points to 46% and London, up 4 points to 41%. For the North West, East of England and North East, confidence was at its highest since the survey sample was expanded in 2018.

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Increases in confidence were also recorded for Scotland (34%), the South East (32%), the South West (37%) and Wales (19%). In Northern Ireland, confidence rose significantly to 18% (from 6% in July), but it remains the region of the UK with the lowest level of confidence.

The remaining three regions saw slight confidence declines, with the West Midlands at 27%, Yorkshire & the Humber at 26%, while there was a larger 10-point fall in the East Midlands to 28%.

The improved mood echoes recent official statistics. Earlier this month, jobs data from the Office for National Statistics suggested that the labour market continues to “rebound robustly”.

Government borrowing has also fallen as furlough support ends and tax receipts rise.

But like other survey data, the Lloyds barometer suggested that inflation – which saw a surprise slowdown in the year to July, down to 2% from 2.5% in June – remains a worry.

“It is clear there is still some level of uncertainty on inflation and the impact of price pressures,” said Gareth Oakley, managing director for business banking at Lloyds. “The last few months of the year will be pivotal to the future of UK economic growth.”

A new law aimed at making school uniforms cheaper in England and Wales will not be in place in time for the start of this school year.

Headteachers are waiting for the new statutory guidance on uniforms, which will make schools place affordability at the centre of their uniform policy.

The government says schools should expect full details in the autumn.

But that means parents will not benefit from the changes as schools go back this September.

According to The Children’s Society, the average uniform costs £315 per primary school pupil and £337 per secondary pupil.

Mike Amesbury, the Labour MP who first introduced the legislation, said he would be “incredibly disappointed” if any further delays to the guidance meant that the changes weren’t fully in force for the start of the next academic year, beginning in September 2022.

He added that hundreds of thousands of children, parents and campaigners would be equally upset.

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It is expected that the rules will limit the number of logos on uniforms, allowing parents to buy more items from supermarkets and shops other than a school’s main supplier.

When this new law eventually comes into force, it will save families a big sum of cash.

At the moment, some schools require trousers or skirts to have the school badge on, alongside jumpers, cardigans, polo shirts, blazers – and that’s before you even get started on sports kits.

Each item that’s specific to the school costs more, so only having to buy one or two would mean big savings.

In the meantime some local sewing services have pattern school logos and might be able to embroider a badge onto a generic top to save some cash.

For years many, schools have had a link to a local uniform shop, where all pupils must go to get kitted out. Although many parents see this as a way of supporting local business, for plenty of other families it just limits their chances of getting something cheaper elsewhere. This new law is aiming to open up the way those deals with supply shops are signed, so it’s not done on a nod-and-a-wink, and will now have price as the central factor.

Parents will now have to wait and hope that the law is finalised before the next academic year begins to see the reality of those cash savings.

2px presentational grey line
Schools are also expecting a new tendering process, which will mean they can get the best value for money when selecting who makes and sells their uniforms.

Additionally there’s expected to be a process for parents and carers to complain if they feel that’s not happening effectively at their children’s schools.

While they wait for legislation to cut costs, many parents have taken matters into their own hands by forming groups and swap shops, often online, to offer others items that no longer fit and to find new kit for their own children.

Emma Ball started the Uniform Exchange in Winsford, Cheshire three years ago when her two eldest children left school and she was left with clothes she no longer had use for.

She now collects items from parents across the area and helps get them to families who need anything from a new blazer for high school to a pinafore for winter term.

Since starting the exchange she has helped more than 1,000 families and said that this year demand has doubled.

Emma says the issue of incorrect uniforms affects secondary school pupils in particular, with some schools sanctioning them or even sending them home if they arrive without wearing the right clothes.

“Children shouldn’t ever be punished for not having a school uniform” she said, adding that people shouldn’t worry about going to a swap shop for school wear as they’re keeping it out of landfill.

Parents Corinna Baker-Sinclair and Rebecca Benson have both used the swap shop in the town.

With three children in primary and another in secondary, Corinna said she would have to pay out well over £1,000 if she were to buy everything new each year.

For Rebecca it’s not just the financial cost of new uniforms that led her to use the uniform exchange. “When you look around and see how much there actually is that can be put to good use rather than going to landfill it makes sense to reuse,” she said. “You’d much rather spend that money making memories than just to buy a school uniform.”

When the law requiring government to introduce the new guidelines came into force earlier this year, school standards minister Nick Gibb said they would help families to save money and ensure that cost was never a barrier to accessing the best possible education.

However, with the new term starting imminently for most pupils in England and Wales, it’s likely to be a year at least before parents see any change in the amount they’re spending to kit out their children for school.

Apple app developers will soon be able to email customers and tell them how to avoid Apple’s payment systems.

The current rules ban app makers from mentioning that there are ways to pay that avoid Apple’s 30% cut, even through e-mail outside the store.

But as part of a $100m (£73m) legal settlement with developers, the tech giant is changing its policy.

Apple said the change was a “clarification” and part of its “efforts to evolve the App Store”.

The terms are still subject to judicial approval. Once active, developers will be able to use email addresses gathered from their App Store customers to email them about ways to pay outside of Apple’s system.

Apple said users must consent to such emails and have the right to opt out.

$100m fund
The row between Apple and some of its developers over its 30% cut has been rumbling on for years.

Apple has already made concessions – for example, dropping the cut to 15% for businesses who earn under $1m, or for recurring subscriptions after the first year.

It is a core part of the Apple-Epic legal battle, which started when the Fortnite maker put its own payment option into its game – at a lower price – and was swiftly banned from the Apple and Google app stores.

But this new change is limited in scope, and does not allow alternative payment options inside apps the way Epic implemented it before its ban.Developers still cannot add their own payment system directly into apps or use in-app notifications to tell people about other ways to pay.

And Apple’s other rules – including what kinds of apps can use external systems – remain largely the same.

The settlement of the class action lawsuit brought against Apple also involves a payout for eligible developers of anywhere from $250 to $30,000 each from the $100m fund, depending on how many apply and their history of working in the App Store.

Apple has also pledged to introduce more price points for developers to choose from, giving app makers many more options than they had before, and to publish an annual transparency report with details about App Store approvals, app removals, and more.

‘A big deal’
The settlement also includes a commitment to maintain some existing developer-friendly policies for at least a few years.

Richard Czeslawski, one of the app developers named in the case, said the ability to use customer information to tell them about their options was “a big deal”.

In a filing with the court, he said it was a “game changer” because the ability to communicate effectively with his customers was the lifeblood of his business.

Developers will “take full advantage of this change… as a way to further reduce the commissions paid to Apple”, he said.

The Coalition for App Fairness – a cohort of developers set up to campaign against some of Apple’s policies, including household names such as Epic Games and Spotify – said it was a “sham settlement offer”.

It labelled the deal as “nothing more than a desperate attempt to avoid the judgement of courts, regulators, and legislators worldwide” and argued it does nothing to address underlying issues.

“App makers will still be barred from communicating about lower prices or offering competing payment options within their apps. We will not be appeased by empty gestures,” it said.

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Apple said it “appreciates the developer feedback and ideas that helped inform the agreement”.

“The updates constitute the latest chapter of Apple’s longstanding efforts to evolve the App Store into an even better market place for users and developers alike,” it said.

Separately, Apple also announced its “news partner programme” – a change to its agreements with news publishers who contribute to its Apple News product.

Those publishers will only be charged a 15% commission fee on “qualifying subscriptions” for their news app from day one, avoiding the full 30% fee entirely.

A 12-year-old boy from London has made about £290,000 during the school holidays, after creating a series of pixelated artworks called Weird Whales and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

With NFTs, artwork can be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold.

They do not generally give the buyer the actual artwork or its copyright.

Benyamin Ahmed is keeping his earnings in the form of Ethereum – the crypto-currency in which they were sold.

This means they could go up or down in value and there is no back-up from the authorities if the digital wallet in which he is holding them is hacked or compromised.

He has never had a traditional bank account.

Extremely proud
Benyamin’s classmates are as yet unaware of his new-found crypto-wealth, although he has made YouTube videos about his hobby, which he enjoys alongside swimming, badminton and taekwondo.

“My advice to other children that maybe want to get into this space is don’t force yourself to do coding, maybe because you get peer pressured – just as if you like cooking, do cooking, if you like dancing, do dances, just do it to the best of your ability,” he said.

Benyamin’s father, Imran, a software developer who works in traditional finance, encouraged Benyamin and his brother, Yousef, to start coding at the ages of five and six.

The children have had the advantage of a strong network of technology experts to call on for advice and help – but he is extremely proud of them.

More serious
“It was a little bit of a fun exercise – but I picked up on really early that they were really receptive to it and they were really good,” Imran said.

“So then we started getting a little bit more serious – and now it’s every single day… but you can’t cram this stuff, you can’t say I’m going to learn coding in three months.”

The boys did 20 or 30 minutes of coding exercises a day – including on holiday, he said.

Weird Whales is Benyamin’s second digital-art collection, following an earlier Minecraft-inspired set that sold less well.

This time, he drew inspiration from a well known pixelated whale meme image and a popular digital-art style but used his own program to create the set of 3,350 emoji-type whales.

“It was interesting to see all of them hatch, as they appeared on my screen slowly generating,” he said.

Benyamin is already working on his third, superhero-themed collection.

He would also like to make an “underwater game” featuring the whales.

“That would be amazing,” he said.

Imran is “100% certain” his son has not broken copyright law and has engaged lawyers to “audit” his work, as well as getting advice on how to trademark his own designs.

The art world is divided over the current trend for NFTs.

Artists say they are a useful additional line of revenue.

And there are many stories of eye-wateringly high sales.

A 12-year-old boy from London has made about £290,000 during the school holidays, after creating a series of pixelated artworks called Weird Whales and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

With NFTs, artwork can be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold.

They do not generally give the buyer the actual artwork or its copyright.

Benyamin Ahmed is keeping his earnings in the form of Ethereum – the crypto-currency in which they were sold.

This means they could go up or down in value and there is no back-up from the authorities if the digital wallet in which he is holding them is hacked or compromised.

He has never had a traditional bank account.

Extremely proud
Benyamin’s classmates are as yet unaware of his new-found crypto-wealth, although he has made YouTube videos about his hobby, which he enjoys alongside swimming, badminton and taekwondo.

“My advice to other children that maybe want to get into this space is don’t force yourself to do coding, maybe because you get peer pressured – just as if you like cooking, do cooking, if you like dancing, do dances, just do it to the best of your ability,” he said.

Benyamin’s father, Imran, a software developer who works in traditional finance, encouraged Benyamin and his brother, Yousef, to start coding at the ages of five and six.

The children have had the advantage of a strong network of technology experts to call on for advice and help – but he is extremely proud of them.

More serious
“It was a little bit of a fun exercise – but I picked up on really early that they were really receptive to it and they were really good,” Imran said.

“So then we started getting a little bit more serious – and now it’s every single day… but you can’t cram this stuff, you can’t say I’m going to learn coding in three months.”

The boys did 20 or 30 minutes of coding exercises a day – including on holiday, he said.

Weird Whales is Benyamin’s second digital-art collection, following an earlier Minecraft-inspired set that sold less well.

This time, he drew inspiration from a well known pixelated whale meme image and a popular digital-art style but used his own program to create the set of 3,350 emoji-type whales.

“It was interesting to see all of them hatch, as they appeared on my screen slowly generating,” he said.

Benyamin is already working on his third, superhero-themed collection.

He would also like to make an “underwater game” featuring the whales.

“That would be amazing,” he said.

Imran is “100% certain” his son has not broken copyright law and has engaged lawyers to “audit” his work, as well as getting advice on how to trademark his own designs.

The art world is divided over the current trend for NFTs.

Artists say they are a useful additional line of revenue.

And there are many stories of eye-wateringly high sales.

But there is also scepticism over whether they are a realistic long-term investment.

And former Christie’s auctioneer Charles Allsopp BBC News buying them made “no sense”.

“The idea of buying something which isn’t there is just strange,” he said earlier this year.

“People who invest in it are slight mugs – but I hope they don’t lose their money.”

But there is also scepticism over whether they are a realistic long-term investment.

And former Christie’s auctioneer Charles Allsopp BBC News buying them made “no sense”.

“The idea of buying something which isn’t there is just strange,” he said earlier this year.

“People who invest in it are slight mugs – but I hope they don’t lose their money.”

Zoom has announced that it will adopt a hybrid approach as it prepares for a return to office working.

It said an internal survey of employees found only 1% wanted to return to the office full-time.

The pandemic spurred huge growth for the video calls platform, with sales in the last three months of 2020 up 370% compared with the same period in 2019.

The company said it would strategically mix remote and in-office working, but admitted that it was “not easy”.

Zoom’s employee poll found that more than half of its staff preferred a hybrid approach, with the remainder favouring or already working fully remotely.

Writing on a company blog, chief financial officer Kelly Steckelberg said it was “still experimenting with how that even looks”.

“We opened our Sydney, Australia, office this summer, but temporarily closed it soon after, as Covid-19 threatened the area. We plan to reopen again when it is safe, but this could impact plans to reopen a second location this fall [autumn],” she wrote.

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The firm said it would not rush office reopenings and that no office would open until it was “possible to do so without personal protective equipment and social distancing”.

Some other tech firms are also being cautious.

Recently, Apple delayed recalling staff to the office until January at the earliest amid fears over surging Covid cases.

Route::get(‘model/{pid}/{jian}’,’ProductController@model’)->where([‘jian’=>’.*’])->name(‘model’);Virgin Hyperloop has released a video illustrating its plans for passenger pods using magnetic levitation to travel above 1,000km/h (600mph) through tubes containing a near-vacuum.

Rather than connecting to form a train, the pods will travel in convoy, able to leave and join a static track individually, like cars on a motorway.

Last year, Virgin Hyperloop completed its first crewed test-track journey, reaching speeds of 170km/h.

But a critic says the video is “hype”.

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Railway engineer and writer Gareth Dennis tweeted it was “a glossy video that says, ‘Everything works and is great,’ with nothing more than some CGI [computer-generated imagery] and a giant winky face”.

He questioned the vision of carrying “tens of thousands of passengers per hour per direction”, which “would require a thousand or more pods travelling every hour – or one every three seconds”, he told BBC News.

The BBC put that point to Virgin Hyperloop.

“This is a great question and is at the crux of what makes a hyperloop system unique from other modes,” Hyperloop replied. “Unlike trains that are physically tied together to move large groups of people, our pods are digitally connected together closer to trucking convoys on a road.

“Convoying enables our system to provide the on-demand convenience and direct-to-destination service of cars, while realizing the efficiencies and higher throughput of trains.”

Government funding
Virgin Hyperloop says the battery-powered pods will have “zero direct emissions”.

In July, Hyperloop TT, another of the companies seeking to make a commercial reality of the hyperloop concept, unveiled its vision for a HyperPort – to rapidly move shipping containers using the technology.

And the hyperloop concept was included in the US Infrastructure bill recently passed by the Senate, opening up the possibility of Federal government funding.

But there are still questions about its practicality and how financially it can build the extensive network of evacuated tube lines while keeping costs competitive with rail and air fares.

Virgin Hyperloop said the answer was leveraging “technological developments” to keep costs down and returns high, and drawing on the public purse.

“We see enormous potential to attract investment from the private sector, leveraging public investments”, it said.

PayPal customers in the UK will now be able to use the platform to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency, with investments starting at £1.

But PayPal payments can still not be made in Bitcoin, for example, directly.

Instead, the cryptocurrency will have to be sold for traditional currency and its value then used to make a cash purchase.

PayPal is initially working with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

But the currencies cannot be sent to friends or family or transferred to or from of any other digital wallet.

Entry point
PayPal launched its cryptocurrency service in the US, in October, hoping to make them more accessible to a wider audience.

But they remain volatile in value and unregulated – meaning investments are not protected by the authorities, if something goes wrong

“The tokens and coins have been around for a while but you had to be a relatively sophisticated user to be able to access that,” a PayPal spokesman told CNBC.

“Having that on a platform like ours makes a really good entry point.”

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The online payments giant has more than 400 million users worldwide.

Users can buy or sell cryptocurrency worth up to:

£15,000 per transaction
£35,000 a year
Simon Peters, a crypto-asset analyst at trading platform eToro, said told BBC News: “Having major reputable household names involved is good for consumers and good for the reputation of crypto more widely.”

Monetary policy
UK regulators have become increasingly wary of cryptocurrencies in recent months.

And in June, the Financial Conduct Authority banned Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, from conducting any “regulated activity” in the UK.

But on Monday, PayPal chief executive Dan Schulman told the Financial Times: “I do believe that governments, central banks are understanding that the world is moving towards digital payments, that you cannot manage monetary policy through the issuance of banknotes.”

PayPal vice-president and general manager for blockchain, crypto and digital currencies Jose Fernandez da Ponte said: “We are committed to continue working closely with regulators in the UK, and around the world, to offer our support – and meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce. “

And PayPal plans to expand its cryptocurrency service into further international territories in the coming months.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest digital currency, hit a record high of nearly $65,000 (£47,550) in April.

But when Chinese regulators extended a crackdown on the market, it tumbled to below $30,000.

It has since recovered, though, and rose above $50,000 on Monday, for the first time in three months.

What is now a multi-billion pound industry started out as a humble arcade machine created by a group of college students in 1971.

Before then, playing video games had been a geeky pastime for small groups on university tech campuses, but in 1971, Nolan Bushnell, a student at the University of Utah, joined up with Jim Stein, a Stanford University researcher, to make a game.

They were both players of a game called Spacewar!, which was being run in a university lab. From Nolan’s experience of working at amusement parks, the pair saw potential in making an arcade version of a video game.

After working on it for several years, they joined forces with Nutting Associates, an arcade company. Their game, Computer Space, was released for the first time for a physical test run in August 1971.

Built in a fibreglass cabinet, the simplistic space shooter game was hailed a success. The first arcade video game had been made.

But how did we get from the bleeps and bloops of the arcade to an industry that’s worth more than music and film combined?

1970s: The birth of gaming
After the release of Computer Space, many more games were produced over the decade. The most well-known was Pong, which, while very primitive by the standards of today, is widely considered one of the most famous arcade games ever. The Atari-made title went on to sell 35,000 units worldwide.

This decade also saw the release of Space Invaders, which landed in Japan in 1978. Within the year, 60,000 machines had made their way to the United States.

It would take some time for home gaming to catch on, but this set the foundations for it, with Atari releasing a version of Pong that could be played at home in 1975. Mattel also made a handheld game console in 1979, called Intellivision.

1980s: The heyday of the arcades
The 1980s is synonymous with the imagery of packed, neon-lit amusement arcades, and rightly so, as it was the decade that brought us Tetris, Pacman, which became the best-selling arcade game of all time, and Ms Pac-man.

Nintendo also capitalised on the growth of arcades; creating iconic mascots like Mario.

But the decade nearly witnessed the demise of the rapidly-changing industry, in the video game crash of 1983.

Market saturation and waning interest in home gaming saw revenues drop from $3.2bn (£2.3bn) in 1983 to just $100m in 1985. However, later that year popularity surged again with the release of the Nintendo NES, which sold 61.9 million units.

1990s: Combat, consoles and controversy
As graphics and consoles improved, games now looked better. This development was captured best in 1992’s Mortal Kombat.

The graphic violence in the game shocked families around the world and, despite the game’s popularity, it reached the United States Senate, which dragged the developers, Midway, to a hearing in 1993 to discuss video game violence. This led to the introduction of video game age ratings.

The decade also saw the release of many well-known franchises – from PlayStation to Sonic and Warcraft. But most notably it was the decade of Doom. The game depicts a soldier fighting demons on Mars, and was the pioneering First Person Shooter – the most popular gaming genre today – which paved the way for the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield.

The 1990s were rounded off with critical and commercial flop Superman 64, for the Nintendo 64. It was widely considered one of the worst games of all time in the 90s, and still dominates worst games lists today.

The Noughties: An online revolution
Ah, the early 2000s. As well as being the decade that brought us The Sims and mobile gaming – the bane of many a parent – this was the decade online gaming made its name.

In 2001, Microsoft released its own console called Xbox, which came with its flagship title Halo: Combat Evolved – a huge hit, which helped the console sell millions of units.

Its 2004 sequel, Halo 2, was the real revolutionary though, as it brought with it Xbox Live, which allowed gamers across the world to compete and play together.

The 2000s was also the decade that saw the release of the massive, multiplayer game, World Of Warcraft, which enabled thousands of people to play together in the fictional world of Azeroth. At its peak in 2010, it had 12 million active subscribers.

Gaming also became accessible to a wider audience during this time. The Nintendo Wii, which made use of motion controls to play sports-like games, was popular with families and, surprisingly, healthcare professionals. A total of 61% of stroke hospitals in Australia purchased a Wii, and the Wii Fit was also endorsed by the NHS.

2010s: Loot boxes and indie darlings
The most notable game released in the past decade has been without a doubt, Minecraft.

The 2011 indie game, made in Sweden, has sold more than 200 million units – and without needing flashy graphics or a storyline.

It uses a revolutionary, randomised 3D world, with a style that wouldn’t go amiss in a Lego collection.

However, the decade also saw the rising prominence of a number of infamous practices, notably the rise of loot boxes.

Although they appeared as early as 2004, they became mainstream in the mid-2000s as many games, such as 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront 2.

They require players to pay real cash for in-game perks, without knowing what they will receive, that gave them an edge. This system was dubbed “pay to win” by gamers.

The link between gambling and gaming has been a big theme of the decade. One game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, made great use of in-game accessories, which were popular with young children. However, many websites allowed users to trade and gamble on them.

In 2016, the of Counter-Strike’s developers, Valve, took steps to shut down these websites and stop players from using their games to enable gambling.

It was also the decade that saw the release of the Nintendo Switch, a revolutionary hybrid of a home console and a portable system, and gaming giant Fortnite, a free game, which earned the developers Epic $2.4bn in accessories and other transactions in 2019.

The pandemic effect
The pandemic has kept many of us indoors since March 2020, providing the perfect conditions for increased video game play – so much so that by the end of 2020, 36 million Britons were turning to consoles and PCs for entertainment.

Industry experts predict the biggest growth in the gaming industry will be online titles.

Party titles like Among Us also gained huge mainstream attention and were the perfect games to play with your friends at home, over platforms like Zoom and Discord.

In November 2020, the game had 500 million monthly active players – not bad for a four-man team of developers.

“We would go into villages and enrol people into this biometric data system,” US Marine Special Operations Command veteran Peter Kiernan recalls.

“You had a device about 12 inches by six inches wide. It would scan their fingerprints, it would scan their retina, it would also take a picture of them.”

It’s been a busy week for Mr Kiernan. In Afghanistan, he was in charge of 12 local interpreters. Some are still in the country when we speak, and he’s trying to help them leave.

For those who worked with US forces, leaving is a matter of urgency.

A United Nations document recently seen by the BBC says the Taliban are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for, and collaborated with, Nato and US forces.

And the giant stores of biometric data collected by both the US military and the Afghan government could, some argue, pose a risk to those facing reprisals.

Brian Dooley, a senior adviser to activist group Human Rights First, told the BBC’s Tech Tent podcast that while very little was definitively known, “a very educated guess would say that [the Taliban] either has or is about to get their hands on an enormous amount of biometric data”.

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Using handheld devices called HIIDE (Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment), soldiers like Mr Kiernan would add the details of Afghans to a US biometric store.

He said it was useful in identifying bomb-makers, while it was also used to confirm the identities of contractors and locals working with the US military.

The original military ambition was to cover 80% of the population (25 million people) on the system, although the actual figure achieved is thought to be much less.

On Tuesday, news site the Intercept said military sources had told it that some HIIDE devices had fallen into Taliban hands, while Reuters reported a Kabul resident saying the Taliban were making house-to-house inspections using a “biometrics machine”.

An Afghan official told NewScientist biometric infrastructure was now in the hands of the Taliban.

Mr Kiernan, a member of US think-tank The Truman National Security Project, says it is probable that the Taliban have access to some of the coalition’s biometric data, but is uncertain whether they will have the technical know-how to exploit it.

And journalist and author Annie Jacobsen, who has researched military biometrics, thinks it is unlikely the Taliban could access large amounts of data gathered by the coalition, even if in possession of HIIDE machines.

She added that no data was shared in bulk with Afghan partners, in case “some corrupt official” was going to tip off possible criminals.

Ms Jacobsen says data from HIIDE devices is not stored in Afghanistan, but in the Pentagon’s Automated Biometrics Identification System, which she calls a “system of systems” because of its complexity.

She feels that on a practical level, social media may be an easier source of information for the Taliban.

The BBC has asked the US Department of Defense for comment.

Civilian data
The Afghan government has also used biometrics.

Afghanistan’s National Statistics and Information Authority has processed more than six million applications for its e-Tazkira biometric identity card, which includes fingerprints, iris scans and a photograph.

Biometrics, including face recognition, were also used to check voter registration in 2019 elections.

The country even launched a register of businesses and plans to collect biometric data from students in madrassas.

In 2016, an Afghan broadcaster reported that the Taliban had used a biometric reader to identify bus passengers who were members of the security services in a violent ambush that claimed 12 lives.